Hong Kong researchers have found that a vaccine designed to alter DNA can protect mice from mesothelioma and even cure mice that have the disease.

Doctors at the University of Hong Kong claim to have found a way to wipe out mesothelioma in laboratory mice by injecting them with a vaccine that changes their DNA. Surviving Mesothelioma has just posted details of the study on its website. Click here to read the full article now.

Scientists with Hong Kong University’s AIDS Institute of Microbiology created a vaccine using a protein called “programmed cell death protein 1” or PD-1. By altering DNA, the vaccine is designed to prevent mesothelioma cells from disabling the body’s natural anti-cancer immune response.

The study, published in Cancer Research, found that the vaccine led to “therapeutic cure of pre-existing mesothelioma” in the mice and that the effects were greater with larger vaccine doses.

“Although this vaccine is a long way from a ‘cure’ for mesothelioma, the results are significant because they suggest that it may be an even more effective immunotherapeutic approach to this intractable cancer than we have seen to date,” says Surviving Mesothelioma Managing Editor Alex Strauss.

For nearly ten years, Surviving Mesothelioma has brought readers the most important and ground-breaking news on the causes, diagnosis and treatment of mesothelioma. All Surviving Mesothelioma news is gathered and reported directly from the peer-reviewed medical literature. Written for patients and their loved ones, Surviving Mesothelioma news helps families make more informed decisions.